The AKP-MHP government continues to shift voters to many cities where it failed to get the desired result in the previous elections. While there is little time left for the local elections, the trustees who usurped the municipalities in Kurdistan are resorting to new tricks through the government. It has already been detected with documents that voters have been irregularly transferred to many districts and towns in the Kurdish region. While the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) continues to work on the allegations in the field, it has objected to these irregularities detected in many places. The objections made by the DEM Party were rejected by the Supreme Election Board (YSK). Shortly before the 31 March 2024 local elections, thousands of soldiers and police officers were registered as voters in many cities.

DEM Party Amed (Diyarbakır) Provincial Co-Chair Pınar Sakık Tekin spoke to ANF about the voters irregularly shifted to Kurdistan cities.

"The ruling coalition, which cannot tolerate the gains of our party and our people, has dealt with the election results of 2019 at every ballot box, and by surgically intervening in them, they have embarked on a way of transporting voters that will affect the election results. Especially in many provinces of Kurdistan, mobile voter transport is being carried out. The government, which has constantly usurped the will of the people during the past two terms and fallen into the disgrace of appointing trustees, which is one of the pillars of the updated Eastern Reform Plan, aims to cheat and steal at the polls again. It is doing this in many places, carrying voters in the places it lost by a small margin in the 2019 elections,” Tekin stated.

The government resorts to dirty attacks

The AKP-MHP government knows that they cannot win the municipalities in Kurdistan, so they resort to irregularities, said Tekin and continued, "They aim to win the elections by shifting voters. We do not remain silent against this criminal politics. We will file a criminal complaint against both those who transport and those who are involved in this transport.  We will show them how democracy is. We showed them what democracy is by organising a primary election in Kurdistan, which we call 'Democracy Feast'. With this primary election, we have kept democracy in the hearts of the people and we will continue to do so. As a party, we do not accept this apolitical behaviour, but we are trying to create conditions for all our people to express their political will by bringing them to the polls. AKP resorts to dirty attacks the moment it realises that it is losing. We will frustrate these attacks at the ballot boxes."

Soldiers and policemen registered as voters

Tekin stated that according to the data obtained by the party, voters were shifted from the Black Sea region to Kurdistan and added: "Voters have been registered in places without addresses. There is transportation especially to the districts of Kulp, Hazro and Eğil in Amed. As a party, we made objections to the district election board, but our objections were rejected on the grounds that 'the people in question are formally commissioned’. Therefore, we made a general application to the Supreme Election Board. We are currently waiting for its answer. We expect the Supreme Election Board to take a fair duty and responsibility for a truly democratic election in Kurdistan. We will stand against this government, which seeks to usurp the will of the people with trustees and voter transfer, both in the primary elections and in the stages to follow. We will carry out our work to take back what has been stolen from us. We will show that there cannot be a people without a party, and no party without the people, and that they are in solidarity with each other. They are afraid of the will and the achievements of the people. We are aware of this. We are making gains with a high rate of votes in Kurdistan. I see this vote rate as a reflection of the democratic politics we are pursuing."

We will protect the will of our people

Drawing attention to the importance of local elections, Tekin said, "We need to be vigilant. We need to work very carefully. We will expose all injustices done to us during the election process. We will tackle this process together with our people. Therefore, our people have a lot of work here. As the DEM Party, we carry out our work based on data. That is why our people have a lot of work to do here. As the DEM Party, we are carrying out our work based on facts. We promise that we will protect the will of our people before, during and after the election."